Editor’s note: The pictures were supplied with the
writeup, but there were no captions.

I’m no stranger to traveling (travelling?) for small conventions, but
the confluence of Traveller’s 40th birthday, visiting guest of honor
Marc Miller and some more than casual curiosity finally tipped the
scales and forced my hand to Lancaster, Pennsylvania in late-September.

Perhaps it’s the birthday or some Traveller uptick in OSR gaming en
masse, but it seems that interest is warming to gaming’s longest-running
sci-fi game. For quite a while, the most notable Traveller in
mid-Atlantic was a long-time ongoing game at Dexcon/Dremation
conventions run by Ben Forest; where also in recent years the White
brothers (Mel and Bill) picked up the calling, expanding the footprint.
So the past few years have seen an upswell, returning Traveller to my
life after 30 or so years on hiatus for me.

I grew up on the LBBs (probably the ’82 box but who knows at this
point) but resisted the hardcoded setting that quickly attached to it.
I’m just not an Imperium guy, never was. Nothing personal. It wasn’t
until the newer push in the gaming community to ‘primary sources’ piqued
my interest in Classic Traveller. And with the help of the internet, I
rabbit-holed my way into the G+ community for Classic Traveller and pre-Imperium
play.

Lancaster, for all of its nowhere charm is surprisingly easy to get
to, an hour NW of Philly by train, which makes it just under three hours
for me from Penn Station, or the foolhardy could attempt Lancaster
regional airport. The hotel is a sort of grand monstrosity perhaps
originating in the late ’60s/early ’70s but fighting the encroachment of
disrepair and expansion simultaneously. A sea of beige-on-beige carpets
and furnishings spider around unusual angles and half-floor wings that
abruptly turn and dead-end. The con seems to be fighting a losing battle
on the perks front, now no longer offering a continental breakfast or
coffee to guests. We are not there for the amenities as such. And the
hotel is parked in a suburban arm of Lancaster, swaddled in highway
traffic and easy access to recognizable bad food choices within an easy
commute by foot or car.

Perhaps to battle this, TravellerCon does a wonderful job trying to
ignore the hotel with the same fervor as it’s received. They offer a
free pizza dinner on Friday night to those in attendance and do an
excellent job running an in-room consession stand and there is always
chilled water on hand. You’d be surprised at how often these little
things are disregarded at larger and smaller cons. TravellerCon is big
on the hospitality.

And how is that? It’s smallish. But not tiny. This year and the visit
from Marc pushed the Ballroom we were given to the limit. Often eight
tables would be running at capacity across the three slots; with the
exception of Saturday morning slot running 10 full tables.

It’s a loud room but not the worst. The low accoustic tile ceiling
pulls its weight and keeps the Refs from yelling. Dotted around the back
of the room and on the edges you’ll find a few tables of aging gamers
selling product or by-product of 40 years of Traveller history.

TravellerCon was incredibly welcoming. My hosts went out of their way
to introduce themselves. When announcements needed to be had they would
wend their way to each table and make them in person. Intimate would be
the wrong word, but maybe ‘familiar’. Perhaps this is just how people
normally interact outside of city life? Anyway…

My days of wrangling three games a day for multiple days may be past
me but that didn’t stop many of the fresh and worn faces dotting the
happy mass. I was able to play two games of Classic Traveller and two
games of MegaTraveller. Two great games and two uneven games. That’s not
a bad ratio. I split my time between playing games with familiar players
and refs; and randomly going into a new crowd with unknown playing
styles and expectations–prospecting. With regard to the latter, one was
a reskinned American Independence themed module penned and run by Adam
Dray, and that was phenomenal. I also spent a lot of time gaming with
Mel White who is just about everything you’d want in a ref no matter the
system.

Many raced to get to some Sunday morning gaming, which is a rarity in
most conventions. I had stayed out too late cavorting at the bar on
Saturday night and could all but scoop myself up and Uber my way back to
Amtrak. Curled up with a pocket full of gaming notes, I began to comb
through pics I took from gaming sessions which even now as I write this
was only a short time ago.

Among the pile of bar receipts, Traveller-themed note pads and a
quick drawing of a six legged bear was an upended business card. I
flipped it over and smiled. I'd forgotten that on just the previous
night, Adam Dray had tapped me on the shoulder at the tail end of my
evening session and handed me a black and red card. “What’s this?” I
asked.

“Oh, yeah. Marc just made you a Duke.”

So, I’ve got that going for me now. Maybe I should give this Imperium-thing
another chance.